Decided to buy some machetes and go hike up the mountain in Puerto Plata.

Hey how are y’all doing? I am glad to hear that Grandpa Brink is doing well, and I hope Grandpa. Smith is well too. Also I bet y’all are glad to have football back.
But yeah we got hit with a wicked storm Saturday morning. We got woken up like at 6:00 in the morning from a lightning strike that struck near our house.
Yeah Kirk would be a pretty good body guard; (in reference to him shadowing Brittney at BYU if he doesn’t play in the NFL this year) I would keep my distance.

So for our p day Elder Childs, Guzman, Contreras, and I decided to buy some machetes and go hike up the mountain in Puerto Plata. That was one of the most intense things I have ever done in my life. It was a combination of hacking with machetes, rock climbing and about every hiking skill there is. We didn’t quite make it to the top, but we got about 95% of the way up. We hit a dead end with a huge wall to climb and we decided not to risk it. So we started at 7:00 in the morning and got up and down by 1:00 pm so I am absolutely dead.


The work is doing great here, we have a baptism this week! We have a 12 year old that has gone to church for over a year with his friends so he wanted us to teach him, so we have been teaching him for the past couple of weeks and is getting baptized Saturday. So it was a free gift from some members, which is always nice. His name is Carlos and he is a way smart kid and will help out the Deacons Quorum here. We had a great lesson with a couple that needs to get married Monday night, so we are hoping they can turn the corner before the end of the transfer. We still have our families that need to get married, they do everything other than the getting married part. We are trying to find some new people and have some success. We found a guy that was a stud investigator but just moved to Santo Domingo so we lost him.

Our ward here is pretty cool. I had to give a talk on Sunday so it was my first time to give a talk in like 6 months. Usually members work in construction, farming, cooking, or killing animals.
Well I hope y’all enjoy this last part of the summer that is left! Take care, love you guys!

Elder Smith

View from the hike

We had 6 investigators at church and went to Sosua Beach for P Day

Hey what is up guys? It sounds like everything is going good back home. In 365 days I'll be on an airplane heading towards Houston! It is great to hear that Grandpa Brink is recovering well, and hope every thing goes well with Grandpa Smith. I hope Javier gets called out here and I can train him, it would be easy since he already knows Spanish. Jacob survived some heat and humidity, good job you survived a week. Today we went to Sosua beach for the day, so that was way fun other than we couldn’t get in the perfect water. I know why people pay to come to this country now. We played some soccer on the beach so my comp was happy for that.

Elder Montepeque is pretty tight, we get along really well and he is an awesome teacher. Our ward is pretty tight, there are usually about 120 people in Sacrament Meeting every week so it is pretty consistent. Everything runs well in this ward other than in the gospel principles class the teacher was teaching that we should pray to Jesus instead of Heavenly Father, talk about apostasy! We had 6 investigators at church so I like the numbers here. We are working really hard to get some of our couples married but it is hard when they don’t have their information, or a little bit of extra money to pay for it. One of the people we are teaching is 16 and he is living with his 27 year old girlfriend, talk about awkward. Contacting is a little hard, Elder Montepeque has contacted every house in our area and it’s hard when you do the same houses again. He just tells me to pick cause he already has tracked everything.

I hope everything is going well at home, the summer is passing by fast! Enjoy the new furniture, I can’t wait to sit on a real couch again! Take care, Love you guys!

Love, Elder Smith

Matthew and his companion, Elder Montepeque 

Matthew and Elder Jimenez(he is best friends with Elder Reyes, one of Matthew's former companions)

Matthew and Elder Child, he lives in the house with him

People from his Zone
Which one is the American???

His shirt blends in with the water and sky

They found Bob Marley

Relaxing on P Day

We love you too!

Scenery

Clear water.
We don't see that on our Texas beaches

I wish I could go swimming!

Our area is doing pretty well.

Hey what’s up guys? I survived the strike that didn’t quite make it up to here. That is good to know that Grandpa Brink is doing better, my thoughts and prayers are for both of my grandpas. It sounds like Jacob (who is at scout camp) is just getting ready for his mission call here, its good for him. My new area is awesome, a little small but that means less walking. Elder Montepeque is a stud, we get along really well and teach well together. Santiago was pretty chill today. I got to see Cesar so that was good to see that he is still going strong. But yeah, I am in another 4 man house to make 7/8 transfers in a 4 man house.

Our area is doing pretty well, we have a good number of investigators and for the most part they are families which is good. We had 7 investigators in church on Sunday which was a good sign for my first Sunday here. The Church is true here! Just kidding, but really it is. We actually have a ward here. I got roped into playing the piano for Sacrament Meeting again. The last elder here before me played and they caught me practicing during the week so I was forced into it. We have some legit investigators that always read, pray, and go to church so it makes our job easy. We still have to get some of them married, so that will be the biggest challenge here. I miss that part of La Vega in that everyone was married legally.

I'm getting a pretty good farmer's tan out here, the only thing that saves me from the heat is the nice ocean breeze that comes in. I hope everything is going good at home and that y’all are enjoying the summer! Take care, Love y’all!

Elder Smith

This is what Matthew calls the Junk Beach in Puerto Plata.
It's still better than Galveston!



Matthew and Elder Montepeque



I’m on a beach! I got transferred to Puerto Plata.

Hey what’s up guys? I’m doing great, we had another baptism this past week and it was awesome! Hey guess what, I’m on a beach! I got transferred to Puerto Plata (Silver Port) and I extend the mission with another Latino comp from El Salvador named Elder Montepeque, I’m going to forget English pretty soon. He seems way tight and says we have some people that are good here, but none of them are married legally so we have to work with that. But I’m stoked that Javier put in his papers, he can come join me out here. Dad finally let go of the Dodge, it will be weird seeing my truck in the other driveway when I get home.

So yeah I was kind of bummed to leave my last area because we had a lot of people progressing and of all of the juice that we got from the members, but I was stoked when I was called to one of the coolest areas in the mission. Seeing the beach today was sweet other than the fact that I can’t go swim. We baptized Edi this past week and I got my second baptism. He was a stud, we started teaching and baptized him in the same transfer. It is awesome Cesar and Edi help each other out a lot, and they have already started paying their tithing! The branch in La Vega was sick and helped us out a lot. Now I am in a ward for the first time in my mission.

My new area looks pretty legit, we have the mountains on one side, and the beach on the other. You can see the mountains behind the photo of my comp and I. I can’t wait to take a gondola up to the top of it and see everything. I hope that y’all enjoy the photos that I sent home. I really don’t have too much to say because I don’t know how things are here yet.

I love you guys, take care and enjoy the summer!

Love, Elder Smith




Matthew and his new companion, Elder Montepeque (pronounced Montapecker)




Mildred and her daughter, they always gave the missionaries juice




Saying goodbye to Edi and Cesar



Matthew found a friend

Matthew, Jose Miguel and Elder Jimenez

Matthew with Dariel who is a RM. Matthew was going to baptize his wife in 2 weeks but got transferred

Matthew, Elder James and Elder Kinney



At a dinner cita (appointment)



Matthew eating in the dark, you know the power goes off all the time



Edi's baptism



Matthew and Edi

Matthew, Edi, Cesar and Jimenez



At the Tourist Trap